Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tokin Twilighter

Tisk, tisk miss Stewart. You should know better. You're a big star now, Twilight's Bella Swan for Christ sake, and a role model to little girls all over the world. Whether you like it or not, your behavior will have an influence on some impressionalble ladies.
Look, I'm no saint, but get smart, if yer gonna toke up, and you're a celeb, restrict your smoking to the INSIDE of your house. This isn't Amsterdam.
Sheesh.
Who knows, maybe she thought all the paps were stalking RPattz and she wouldn't get caught.
Thanks to the TMZ for this photo. Follow the link to see all the pics. Those rats are everywhere.


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

MacGyver Moments

Kudos to Gemlindog for putting together such a kick-ass compilation!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Bear Season

My parents are in the Poconos right now where it's bear season. Yes, people shoot and eat bear meat. Anyway, Mom sent this pic to Smoochies and she sent it to me with the message "Happy Thanksgiving." Poor little ittle beary poo.


I imagine his last few moments went something like this:

Bear to self: "Man that was a fun summer. Met some new ladies, had a couple cubs, raided a crap-load of bird feeders. Man, those old ladies know how to feed some birds. The blueberries were so plump and juicy this year as well. I'm still pickin seeds out of my incisors. And the road-kill, don't even get me started. I had my fill of dead possum and raccoon. Yummy! And this never happens to me: I found the most kick-ass den to hibernate in. It's under this huge fallen tree and it's got a nice dry leafy floor, and the entrance faces south so those north winds won't bother me a bit. Just one more day and I'm settling down for the winter. It's been a great year.... I'm one lucky bear.

Hey what's that smell? Weird, kinda like a mixture of Marlboros, beef jerky and Budweiser. Hey look some humans have crossed paths with me. I'll stand up and say hello..... Howdy neighbor, fancy seeing you he..... oh wait, crap what the hell is .... "


Happy Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Twilight Twice

Hi Townies, Unless you've been in Gitmo for the last several years, then you know about Twilight. You may also know about my somewhat alarming obsession with the book series. I'll bet you can also imagine my anticipation for the movie which opened yesterday to some pretty staggering box office numbers. Luckily for me, my new part-time gig has me footloose and fancy free every Friday. So I decided to go see the film by myself on Friday figuring the tweeners would all be in school and I could catch the film without the lines and Pattinson-induced involuntary high-pitched screaming. (I also caught the film again on Saturday with Smoochies and Beeps)

The movie theater was pretty empty when I arrived for the 10:45 am showing. Perfect. I was giddy in my seat just waiting for the movie to start. Wondering how it would open and how the Cullens would be introduced. I usually love seeing previews before the movie, but in this case, every new preview they showed made me long for the fast-forwarding power of the remote.

SPOILERS AHEAD - so if you haven't seen the movie or read the book. Stop now.

Ok. Let me first start by saying that I had low expectations going in. Most book-to-movie translations end up being disappointing and never live up to the book. This was the case with Twilight. I knew it would be hard to take a 300+ book and turn it into a 2 hour movie. But there were only two things they needed to to do to make it work: capture Edward's overwhelming desire to eat Bella and make us believe in their blossoming, forbidden relationship. And the movie failed at both. Edward, no matter how ridiculously good-looking Rob is, was unable to convince me that he was being torn apart inside. But to his credit, you can only brood so much without having good lines in which to sell your audience. And I'm not blaming Stephenie here. Those lines i.e. "And the lion fell in love with the lamb... ", "Hold on spider monkey" etc. translate ok in the book, sweet almost, but just didn't work in the film. In addition, the writers and production company, must have believed that in order to keep audiences interested (those who possibly didn't read the book) that they needed to make James the star and climax of the film. Yes, I understand that you need some action to keep the boys interested, but the book is about family, sacrifice, and impossible love. Not running from other vamps. I would have loved it sooooo much more if the first book was split into two films. One of their relationship, and another about the other vamp clans.


There were also a couple of moments that I was dying to see translated in the film. The first was the meadow scene. This was a big moment for me in the book. Bella and Edward spend the day together. A date. This was the moment Edward opens up and reveals his true self to Bella. The moment he shows her a special place, exposes his feelings, kisses her, and sparkles. Instead in the movie, he shows his skin in a fit of frustration and anger. The meadow is almost an after-thought and not a place and time they share. I did like the way they showed his skin, but I could have really done without the sparkly-fairy-twinkling sounds. It was too cutesy. The man-sparkles speak for themselves folks.

I also wanted more to the prom scene, the extended prom remix would have been nice. I missed Alice in this moment. In the book you fall in love with Alice and her perky need to dress and spoil Bella. I wanted the prom surprise in the book, I wanted to see Alice fussing over Bella and Edward revelling in his secret. The joke being that Bella thinks he's taking her to change her instead they end up at the prom. In the film, again, the prom has lost its magic.


I also wanted more Cullen. I loved Alice in the book and I think she had 2 lines in the film. Jasper was almost comic relief, Emmitt was pretty true, and Rosalie came off nasty and crass. Carlise and Esme were pretty spot-on. Overall, the Cullens were more wall paper than active participants in the story. Again, victims of the film's time-constraints.

Kristen did a nice job with what she had. Other than the bad acting in the hospital bed (Cathrine, why did you choose that take? Her pleading with Edward was amateur and unconvincing. ) she gave a nice performance. In some cases though, I wanted to see why Edward wanted her, what was so special about her? What was it that was so irresistible? And Bella came off as cranky and no fun. I get that she's new and a bit disappointed with her new surroundings, but her friends were so welcoming and she just (and to use a Stephenie-favorite) glowered.

Now on to the CG. In some cases it was pretty cool: Edward climbing the tree, the baseball, the sparkles, the fight scene, etc. But in other cases it was pretty bad. Bella looked almost awkward and goofy riding Edward's back and the stunt doubles were obvious.

Okay, enough trash talk. There were some things I really liked. Rob, for one, was just total eye-candy. The washed-out film captured the feeling of gloomy Forks, and sweeping camera shots were fun. I liked Charlie and the baseball scene, I enjoyed Bella's goofy, immature friends (even though other reviews say they were annoying) it was almost nice to have some contrast to Bella's almost constant dower-state.

Overall, let's say I hadn't read the book, I'd give Twilight 2.5 stars out of 5. But having read and loved the books, I give the film 3 stars. For what the film lacked in story and feeling, I was able to fill in the blanks with the Twilight high I carry around with me daily. I'm just glad they made the film. And I look forward to New Moon and the rest of the books. Maybe they'll take my advice and slow it down a bit. Don't be afraid to break the books up into several films or even a TV series. There is so much more to the stories than killer vampires. And if you need my help Stephenie, Cathrine, Rob, just let me know. I have off on Fridays.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Bring Me Flowers

Just saw these delish pics of Brandon Flowers on Perez. Can't wait till the new Killers album comes out.

Yummy.







Thursday, November 13, 2008

Local Blogger Decides at the Last Minute to Not Stalk Robert Pattinson at the King of Prussia Mall

It was last week when I first found out Rob Pattz/ Edward Cullen was going to be at the Hot Topic store in KOP. And yes, I considered, although very breifly, about going. I mean I only work a few miles from the mall and I'm a huge Twilight fan.

Then I heard the news about the tweeners rioting in San Francisco and other malls around the country, just to get a glimpse. Then I remembered that I'm 35 and should probably just stay home and drown my sorrows in a bottle of Jameson, because I'm old enough to buy buy booze and those girls are not. And although seeing Rob would give me pleasure, it would only be fleeting and my good friend Jameson would be around much longer. And even when ole' Jamie is gone, it's just a quick trip to the state store where I won't have to pitch a tent in the rain, 24 hours in advance to get my fix.



So yes, I still love Rob Patz, and can't wait till the movie opens next Friday; I'll just be good an drunk when I get there.

Monday, November 10, 2008

MPW at Johnny Brenda's

Heads-up all you Townies, Missing Palmer West is having another fun and booze-filled show this Friday at Johnny Brenda's in Philly. Should be a fab show. They will be sharing the stage with Bitter Bitter Weeks and The Swimmers. Show starts at 9:30 pm. Tix are 8 bucks at the door.



Hope to see you there.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

First the Phils, now Obama, and then in just a couple weeks Twilight opens. Can it get any better than this? It's too much goodness for one person to handle. I'm not used to all this winning.

Congrats to Obama, I'm sooooo thrilled! Finally, Finally, Finally. President Obama. Or as Chase Utley would say,

"President Barack Fucking Obama!"